Spartans ARE OFFICIALLY GOING TO INDY for the Big Ten Championship... and so is the ES!

#11 Michigan State is an early 14 point favorite over Minnesota in its season finale - Kickoff is noon; on BTN. Nebraska is favored by 3 at home over Iowa; Ohio State is favored by 12 at Michigan; Northwestern is favored by 3-1/2 at Illinois; and, Indiana is favored by 20-1/2 at home over Purdue. 

And, yes, our Spartans moved up to #11 in the AP Poll. 

AP Top 25
RK	TEAM	RECORD	PTS
1	Alabama (56)	11-0	1496
2	Florida State (4)	11-0	1444
3	Ohio State	11-0	1375
4	Auburn	10-1	1294
5	Missouri	10-1	1202
6	Clemson	10-1	1196
7	Oklahoma State	10-1	1177
8	Stanford	9-2	1002
9	Baylor	9-1	976
10	South Carolina	9-2	960
11	Michigan State	10-1	929
12	Oregon	9-2	731
13	Arizona State	9-2	690
14	Wisconsin	9-2	684
15	LSU	8-3	642
16	Fresno State	10-0	619
17	UCF	9-1	588
18	Northern Illinois	11-0	470
19	Texas A&M	8-3	429
20	Oklahoma	9-2	386
21	Louisville	10-1	383
22	UCLA	8-3	300
23	USC	9-3	262
24	Duke	9-2	135
25	Notre Dame	8-3	68

• Dropped from rankings: Ole Miss 24

• Others receiving votes: Georgia 15, Cincinnati 10, Texas 10, Ole Miss 7, Arizona 6, Nebraska 6, Minnesota 5, East Carolina 1, North Dakota State 1, Vanderbilt 1

COMPLETE DOMINATION

Wow, what a butt-kicking of Northwestern yesterday.  The ES is giving hisself credit:  a 30-6 final; the ES guessed 31-3... nicely done ES!  On offense, the Spartans had career days out of Jeremy Langford on the ground (25-150, 6 yards a pop) and QB Connor Cook through the air (16-24, 293 yards, 0 INTs and 2 TDs).  Just a methodical dissection of the Wildcat defense all day long.

Defensively, MSU manhandled the Wildcats, and gave them a consistently very long field to play on.  While NW managed 19 yards and 319 total yards, the reality is their starting field position was poor for much of the game, thank you to Mike Sadler.  Northwestern gained only 85 total yards in the second half.  Wow.   Darqueze Dennard and Kurtis Drummond played lights-out, total lock down corners all day long for the Spartan secondary.  It was incredible to watch.   You could see NW wear down as the game wore on.  Here are the NW drives for the second half... Nada.

NU       3rd N25  Punt           7-29   3:00
NU       3rd N25  Interception   6-25   1:21
NU       3rd N48  Downs          6-20   2:50
NU       4th N35  Interception   1-0    0:05
NU       4th N16  Punt           3-7    0:56
NU       4th N40  Downs          8-13   2:10
NU       4th N24  Interception   3-1    1:24

Here are the final stats for the game.  Another impressive effort out of the Big Green.

MSU	NW
1st Downs	20	19
3rd down efficiency	4-12	4-15
4th down efficiency	0-1	1-3
Total Yards	464	319
Passing	293	239
Comp-Att	16-23	27-46
Yards per pass	12.7	5.2
Rushing	171	80
Rushing Attempts	40	26
Yards per rush	4.3	3.1
Penalties	4-30	2-15
Turnovers	0	3
Fumbles lost	0	0
Interceptions thrown	0	3
Possession	31:39	28:21